Interlochen Center for the Arts released the full findings of an outside investigation Tuesday that says 47 individuals associated with the school are accused of sexual conduct with students across decades. The report lands as a public reckoning for Interlochen, which says the list has now been turned over to the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office and the Grand Traverse County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review.
The findings come after a person contacted Interlochen in 2024 to report an incident from years earlier, setting off an investigation by Sanghavi Law Office. Investigators said they conducted 180 interviews and collected about 70 firsthand reports from alumni describing grooming, sexual comments, touching and intercourse, with abuse stretching from the 1950s to the 2010s. Most of the conduct described happened before 2000, with only a few reported incidents in the last 25 years.
The report gives the institution its sharpest accounting yet of abuse tied to the campus. Alumni said the conduct came from adults in a wide range of roles, including arts faculty members, academic teachers, visiting instructors, residence life staff members, donors, trustees and visitors. The accusations also include Jeffrey Epstein, who was a donor from 1990 to 2003 and funded scholarships and the construction of a lodge later renamed Green Lake Lodge in 2009.
The harm described by former students went far beyond the original abuse. They told investigators the experiences led to loss of academic interest, ongoing PTSD, years of therapy, broken personal relationships and damaged career paths. Some said they stopped playing music or gave up hopes of pursuing the performing arts. Others said they were afraid to return to Interlochen or attend reunions as adults.
There is, however, an unresolved gap in the report’s public release. Interlochen says the majority of the accused individuals have not been identified, saying that was necessary to protect victim confidentiality and avoid compromising any law enforcement action. That leaves a long list of accusations, but not a full public accounting of who is tied to them.
Six alumni met with investigators about Jeffrey Epstein, and two said he engaged in physical contact of a sexual nature with them. One alum said Epstein brushed against her inappropriately while she was on the Interlochen campus. Interlochen demolished Green Lake Lodge last month after authorities were invited to photograph its exterior and interior for possible future evidentiary use before it was destroyed.
The question now is not whether the report changed the story; it did. The question is what the county offices do with the names they were given, and whether this long-delayed accounting leads to any further public action.
